MS01.01.03.B01.F13.012

11.
His parents were poor , simple-living folk. His schooling

had to be brief because as the eldest of five children,

his working and earning from an early age was necessary .

In those days , at the start of the century , there was no

ray of opportunity that he might grasp to lift himself

out of these circumstances. Yet, he aspired to be an

artist. He worked at this strange ambition the best way

he could. Of his interest in art he said:

" I began copying the
humorous drawings in our newspapers, and the joy
I derived from these may without a doubt be ascribed
to the way the primitive
people always adore cari-catures."

[left margin: ne]

So he set his course in the field of art. He said once,

many years later, in an interview in stockholm:

" You have to search your
way forward. You have to dare something when
you are proud."

[ drawing alt text: A circle in red ink with red lines in the middle of the circle]
From copying cartoons as a method of self-training in art,

he derived the ability to tell a story in a picture. He

also carried a caricature-like throughout his entire

art career.

[ left margin: R. (Wm. Johnson Crucifixion)
L. (Wm. Johnson Swing low Sweet Charriot)]

Johnson's short story technique became apparent in

his first impressionistic paintings in France and Corsica; [drawing alt text: red ink with a round shape]

[crosssed out: his strong blue Riviera skies and the crooked streets which

seem to run a rickrack course up the hillw while carrying

the sunbaked buildings along with them.] [ drawing alt text: A circle in red ink with red lines in the middle of the circle] But the stories he

[ left margin: crossed out: R. ( Wm. Johnson Negro Baptising)
L. Wm. Johnson Descent from the Cross)]